Trainspotting:Key scene analysis

Trainspotting:Key scene analysis

Throughout Trainspotting the director, Danny Boyle explores themes such as; addiction, friendship, drug use, family, happiness, decision-making and many more. These themes are presented in the form of binary opposition, for example selfishness vs friendships or drug use vs happiness. The ways in which these themes are presented are through cinematography, mise en scene and the structure of scene, in addition to the film as a whole. It could be argued that the three most important scenes in terms of presents in the themes and binary oppositions of the film are the opening scene, the scene were Renton has an overdose and the scene in which Renton is going 'cold turkey' and has halutionation as a result of it. 

The opening scene of any film is important since it gives the viewer ah insight into what the film is about and essentially is the things that establishes whether or not the view is engaged. However the opening sequence of trainspotting is particularly important since it clearly introduces all the key characters and immediately before anyone has even spoken shows what the characters are like and what kind of lifestyle they are subjected to. The first thing we hear is a narration, from at this stage we can only assume is from one of the men running. They say  "Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers".

However what we see is them being chased by security guards which directly contradicts with the words being spoken. From this we can assume that the character narrating is complex and does not fit into one particular type of character profile. 

Following this Renton says " Choose your friends". The shot that we see while this is being said is the one shown on the left, which shows Renton and friends getting ready for a game of five aside football. The fact that Danny Boyle uses a sport as a way of collectively introducing the characters could be suggesting that in terms of their journey these friends might be similar to that of a team. In addition to this, it could be argued that the actions that the characters do present to the audience what the characters are like. Two examples of this is when Begby clearly fouls somebody and when Tommy is trying to get out of the corner with the ball. From this the assumption can be made that Begby is aggressive does not play by the rules- possibly linking him to criminality and could be inferring that Tommy is an honest person that tries his best to get out of bad situations. 

Nother shot it the one shown here below:

In this shot see the women on the sidelines cheering them the men on. Here Danny Boyle could be implying that the women in the film may not pay a significant role in exploring the main themes and the binary oppositions. 

Another major scene that Danny Boyle uses as a means of exploring the key themes in Trainspotting is the overdose scene. The first shot that we see in this scene is that of Renton 'falling through the floor'. It could be suggested that in this scene the floor that Renton falls through could literally be representing the bottom. The fact that Renton falls through it could be symbolic of how low he is in life. 

In this shot we see the dealer looking over him it to what looks like a grave. From this it strongly suggests that if Renton does not get help ASAP then he might die. In addition to this, the fact that the dealer is looking over at him in this way shows that he understands that it has possibly gone to far and that he may have to get him some medical assistance. Another way in which Danny Boyle explores the theme of drug use in this scene is through music. Throughout the whole scene the song Perfect day by Lou Reed, which is literally a song that describes what it like to spend the day on heroin from the point of the user. I think this song is particularly chosen for the as a way of attempting to get the audience to fully understand, not only the bad aspect of what Renton is going through, but also the good ones.